Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa said on April 25 that she would soon launch a "movement" to correct the "injustice" being meted out to women Chief Ministers like her while taking oath of office and secrecy.

In an intervention during the debate on the Demands for Grants relating to social welfare department in the state Assembly, she pointed out that while taking the oath under the Constitution, women chief ministers like her, were forced to read a line, which contained a word "citizen".

The word "citizen" (kudimagan in Tamil) appearing in the oath would not fit in for women members and the "correct word" should be the feminine equivalent of citizen, "kudimagal", in Tamil, Jayalalithaa said.

"Great injustice is thus being meted out to women like me," she said, adding she would soon launch a "movement" to correct this.

Jayalalithaa made these observations when Balabharathi (CPI-M), participating in the debate, said while married women were described as "mrs" and unmarried "miss," there was always some confusion while giving such prefixes to men.

The Chief Minister suggested that unmarried men could be described as "selvan" and unmarried women "selvi" (miss).

Balabharathi then rose to say that Prime Minister A B Vajpayee, a bachelor, should then be described as "selvan," the masculine equivalent of "miss," sending the house into peals of laughter.

PTI